Nissan viewed the Detroit Motor Show as being so important it didn’t even bother holding any press conferences this year. Instead, it let its products do the talking even if the firm’s two latest models have already had a substantial airing.

In pole position for sportscar fans was the GT-R. But we’ve already driven it so the supercar was really only noteworthy for making its US debut. That left the brand’s Forum concept car, a model not dissimilar in shape and size to the Mercedes R-Class.

Meals on wheels: the car with a microwave

Although it had already released pictures of the Forum, this was the first time Nissan has shown the model in the metal - and it’s dramatic if only for its sheer size. Inside there’s a beautifully built interior in aluminium, brown leather and wood, which according to its maker, offers a ‘wide array of innovative family fun ideas’. But having individual second-row seats that swivel and slide backwards and forwards isn’t exactly revolutionary. Nor is a speaker system that operates outside the vehicle when the doors are open.

But the seven-seater isn’t totally devoid of interesting features. There’s a (mildly baffling) microwave in the centre console. And the trackless sliding side doors – they’re mounted on an obscured arm – keep the profile nice and neat while offering excellent access to the inside.

Is this the future for Nissan MPVs?

It’s unlikely. Although the Forum does have an engine, all Nissan could tell us was that it’s front mounted, drives the front wheels and has an environmentally sensitive powertrain. Hardly illuminating. One Nissan official revealed that the importance of this vehicle is its nose, which represents the look of future MPVs from the Japanese brand.

Nissan’s new GT500 GT-R race car is a far cry from the Forum concept the Japanese company has just unveiled in Motor City. Nissan chose the past weekend’s Tokyo Auto Salon to show off their new GT-R racing car. Not content with the standard GT-R stirring up the establishment Nissan will enter their supercar into Japan’s Super GT Series.

The Super GT series is a competition split into two classes, GT300 and GT500, with the latter being the Premier League of the pair. GT500 regulations are fairly simple – don’t go past 500 horsepower, and you’re fine. While Nissan is being mum on technical details until the end of the month, the company already has a pretty good starting point. The road-going GT-R has 473bhp and will reach 193mph flat out.

The GT500 GT-R will be up against rivals from Lexus (SC430) and Honda (NSX). But before you complain that the opposition is soft or old, remember that GT500 regulations are so lax that a team can use any engine the manufacturer makes, and even add forced induction. It’s part of the reason why FIA GT1-spec cars like Lamborghinis, and even the odd Maserati MC-12 have struggled.

One of the reasons for the lack of regulation in GT500 is to enable manufacturers to avoid the expenses of road-going homologation specials, often essential in GT racing. Bad news for us perhaps, but Nissan has produced homologation special Skylines in the past, so fingers-crossed for a super-Godzilla. A V-spec GT-R is already in the works but we’re hoping for more from NISMO, Nissan’s motorsports operation.

The GT-R racer also showcases Nissan’s new racing livery, the result of a close collaboration with NISMO. The red apparently shows Nissan’s passion for racing, while the black signifies the supreme performance the new GT-R offers. We’ll ignore the PR talk for now, but if Nissan gets its way expect the opposition to be staring at those iconic quad rear lights for much of the season.

We’ve heard of 2+2s before, but Nissan is taking this numbers game to a whole new level with the Qashqai+2. As its name suggests, this is a slightly bigger version of the crossover with seven seats, up from the regular car’s five.

CAR Online scooped the super-sized Qashqai last year, so it comes as no surprise. Nissan has stretched the wheelbase by 135mm to free up the extra space for a third row of seats, which fold flat when not needed. Overall the car is 211mm longer and 38mm taller. It’s subtly different from the regular Qashqai – every panel behind the A-pillars is new.

So who exactly wants a bigger, longer, higher Qashqai? Nissan reckons there’s a niche out there who want the utility of an MPV, but in a ‘more attractive, sophisticated design’. We’ll let you make your own minds up on that one.

But there’s no denying the 90-litre jump in boot space, now up to 500 litres.

Nissan Qashqai+2: British through and through

The longer Qashqai will be built in Nissan’s Sunderland plant in the UK, and fittingly will receive its global debut at the July 2008 British motor show. The north-east factory produced a record 353,000 cars in 2007 and demand is so high in Europe, that it’s had to divert build for Japanese-market models back to the far east.

Nissan isn’t holding back with the +2 model – it will be available in exactly the same combination of trims and engines as the regular crossover. That means two petrol and two diesel engines, two- and four-wheel drive, and three trim levels.

Expect a slight dent in performance – no surprise, since the +2 model is 100kg heavier than the base car. Nissan claims it has retuned the steering and suspension settings to take the extra heft into account.

The Qashqai will arrive in dealerships in October 2008. Prices will be announced at the London motor show this summer, and standard equipment includes that third row of seats, privacy glass, roof rails and a fixed, panoramic sunroof.

Nissan’s cute Cube will go on sale in the US in 2009 and a production version will be unveiled at the next LA Auto Show, Nissan announced in New York. This will be a petrol Cube: an electric Cube, based on the Denki concept unveiled in NY will follow.

‘Denki’ is Japanese for electric and the concept is the current Cube with a new EV powertrain, with various trim tweaks to remind you of the battery power. The exterior has an ‘electric theme’ while there’s a new panoramic glass roof. To accomodate the lithium-ion batteries the production Cube’s wheelbase has been stretched by 9.4 inches, and the third row of seats has been lost.

‘The Denki Cube Concept is a fun way to expose American buyers to one of Nissan’s most popular home market cars at a time when fuel economy and packaging efficiency are on a lot of people’s minds,’ says Al Castignetti, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Nissan North America.

The Cube aims to steal young edgy buyers from Scion. Apparently it will go on sale at a price that will allow customers to have some money left for personalisation. Scion buyers spend an average of $2-3,000 on accessories. To illustrate the point, two Cubes had been customized by fashion and industrial design students from the local Pratt Institute.

Nissan also outlined its Green Program 2010 at New York, and this will include reducing CO2 emissions by seven percent at its factories by 2010, compared with 2005 levels. A hybrid vehicle will also be launched in 2010, along with a ‘three-litre’ car that can run for 100km on three litres of fuel. That’s 94.2mpg.

The new R35 Nissan GT-R makes its British competitive debut at Oulton Park on Saturday July 5. The car, a personal import brought in from Japan by UK tuning firm RC Developments, will be entered in stock trim in the clubman category of the Time Attack series. The series pits an eclectic Gran Turismo grid of cars against the clock – rather than directly against each other – to set the fastest lap time.

Nissan has made much of the GT-R’s tough-to-crack ECU – making it far harder to tune than the R34 Skyline of the 1990s – but RC are in talks with Cobb Tuning in the US and British firm Ecu Tech and are already developing a freer-flowing exhaust system.

It’s not committing to power targets yet, but the company has form, extracting more than 900bhp from a trackday Mitsubishi Evo and hopes to use the weekend as a preliminary evaluation session before building the UK’s ultimate track-spec GT-R.

We already know that the GT-R is an incredible machine, but it’ll be interesting to see just what potential its 3.8-litre twin turbo V6 holds and if, in race-spec, it can outpunch the 1000bhp outputs of previous R34s. Watch this space.